New People's Army
The New People's Army (Filipino: Bagong Hukbong Bayan), abbreviated NPA or BHB, is the armed wing of the Communist Party of the Philippines (CPP).[14]: 119 It acts as the CPP's principal organization, aiming to consolidate political power from what it sees as the present "bourgeois reactionary puppet government" and to aid in the "people's democratic revolution".[14]: 119 Founded on March 29, 1969,[1]: 96 by the collaboration of Jose Maria Sison and former members of the Hukbalahap led by Bernabe Buscayno, the NPA has since waged a guerrilla war based on the Maoist strategy of protracted people's war.[15] The NPA is one of the key figures in the ongoing Communist rebellion in the Philippines, the longest ongoing conflict in the country.
New People's Army
Vacant
1969–present[1]: 96
- Alex Boncayao Brigade
- Revolutionary Proletarian Army
- Rebolusyonaryong Hukbong Bayan
- Cordillera People's Liberation Army
- Establishment of a People's Democratic Government through proletarian revolution
Active
- 1,500 (as of December 2023)[4]
Kabataang Makabayan
China (until 1976)
The NPA operates and is based primarily in the Philippine countryside,[3] where the CPP alleges it has established itself in 73 out of the country's 81 provinces, across over 110 guerrilla fronts.[3] In guerrilla zones where the NPA has entrenched itself, the CPP–NPA has established a People's Democratic Government (Gobyernong Bayan), which operates independently of the Philippine government. Within these zones, income taxes which would nominally go to the government treasury instead go to the NPA, which they use to fund community services.[16]
The NPA, as represented by the National Democratic Front of the Philippines, is a party to ongoing peace talks between the People's Democratic Government and the Government of the Republic of the Philippines. Peace negotiations have reached an impasse, with the Rodrigo Duterte administration unilaterally announcing the termination of peace talks in 2019.[17] Negotiations between the GRP and the NDFP stalled on signing of the Comprehensive Agreement on Socio-Economic Reforms (CASER),[18] and the issue of localized peace talks between individual units of the NPA.[19]
The Office of the President of the Philippines designated the NPA as a terrorist group, along with the CPP.[8][9] The United States[10] and the European Union[11] have designated the CPP–NPA as "foreign terrorist organizations" in 2002 and 2005, respectively. Japan's Public Security Intelligence Agency designated the NPA as a "major international terrorist organization" (主な国際テロ組織).[12]
International relations[edit]
The Philippine Army had apprehended Eduardo Quitoriano in 1994, who was a NPA liaison officer to the Japanese Red Army and involved in a money laundering case in Switzerland.[48]
It is reported that the NPA had supported the Naxalites (of India) during the Naxalite–Maoist insurgency by providing training and technical support.[49]
The CPP-NPA received large-scale support, in the form of arms, $7 million and logistical support, from the Gaddafi government in Libya according to a US Secretary of State.[50][51]
Legal status[edit]
The Government of the Philippines has outlawed the NPA along with the CPP as through the Anti-Subversion Act of 1957 which branded the Partido Komunista ng Pilipinas-1930 and the Hukbalahap as an "organized conspiracy". As splinter groups which had roots to the two organization, the ban extended to the CPP-NPA.[52] The law was repealed by President Fidel Ramos in October 1992, decriminalizing membership in the NPA and CPP.[53][54]
In December 2017, President Rodrigo Duterte declared the NPA along with the CPP as terrorist organizations.[8][9] In agreement were the European Union,[11] New Zealand and the United States.[13]
The Anti-Terror Council of the Philippines designated CPP-NPA as a terrorist organization in the Philippines on December 9, 2020.[55]
The Manila Regional Trial Court has junked a proscription case by the Department of Justice seeking to designate the CPP-NPA as a terrorist organization on September 22, 2022.[56] The court concluded that the constitution and program of the CPP-NPA, including its justification for armed struggle, fall under "rebellion" and do not constitute the legal definition of "terrorism".